AUO, CMI up wages as Chinese firms poach staff

Big Taiwanese tech firms such as AUO, Chimei Innolux and Hon Hai are upping wages in order to slow the brain drain of staff being poached by Chinese companies.

Chimei Innolux, for example, has given the nod for the biggest pay hike since global economic catastrophe struck back in 2008. The flat panel manufacturer has increased wages by up to 15 percent to stop employee’s heads being turned by bigger pay cheques in China.

Another flat panel manufacturer, AUO, is worried about its workers getting snapped up and handed out pay rises averaging between 6-7 percent back in April, according to Taiwan Economic News. Top workers are getting double digit pay hikes.

More recently others such as TV manufacturer Sampo and semiconductor packaging firm ASE Inc have been dishing out extra cash to staff, with worries increasing over China’s workforce demands.

One display manufacturer in mainland China, CSOT, is apparently actively poaching engineers from Taiwan as it looks to grow its business with additional production output. This has involved looking at the staff rosters of Chimei and AUO in fine detail, before offering up to four times annual pay to persuade talent to jump ship.

There is also pressure on panel manufacturers from within Taiwan too, with semi producer TSMC also looking to nick staff.

This is down to TSMC’s low production of 28nm chips allowing orders to head to the likes of Samsung and UMC. TSMC will now look to expand production, with flat panel display staff likely to be roped in as manufacturing process skills are similar in both methods.